The present invention relates generally to athletic implements and more particularly to athletic implements, such as a golf club, which include means for measuring and displaying the distance traveled by a ball or the like struck by the athletic implement.
A search of the prior art failed to uncover any patents which disclose the apparatus of the present invention. A number of patents were uncovered which disclose various systems used to measure the characteristics of the swing of an athletic implement, club velocity and the like.
While the aforementioned systems and devices are capable of supplying useful information of selected dynamic characteristics of a golf stroke for the purpose of analyzing the accuracy, form, effectiveness, velocity and the like of the stroke, they do not provide the golfer with a quick and reliable system for measurement and numeric visual display of the distance of his drive which can be utilized during actual participation in the game. Not only do most of these systems fail to provide numerical range information, many are too unwieldy to conveniently transport about a golf course during actual play and are, therefore, limited primarily for use as teaching and/or practice aids. Thus, the prior art devices do not disclose an athletic implement having a self-contained system for measuring impact between the implement and a struck object and for numerically displaying range or distance traveled by the struck object.